The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

Fed up talking videogames? Why?
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Green Gecko
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Green Gecko » Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:12 pm

Qikz, there is this book on Humble Bundle £12 bundle at the moment, if you are interested in escalating why you are getting so many tickets, it might help you look like you are showing incentive: https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Handbook+of ... 1118080405

I am probably going to buy the bundle DRM free so let me know if you would like a copy.

There's also this: https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Usable+Usab ... 1118240434

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Errkal
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Errkal » Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:18 pm

Green Gecko wrote:Qikz your company should have online knowledge base and all direction there before sending a ticket for self resolution for example while logging a request match words to help article suggestions in real time. Something like https://bjum.helpdocs.com/

There will also be people who want help from someone else to do whatever it is and it is hard to avoid that.

Errkal's post was very good.

It sounds likely there are some user experience problems with your software in which redesign is probably not viable.. Some tweaks can be made. Does your company develop software as well? Maybe you can do some audit or testing to check whether the root cause is confusion in the design in which case you will never stop getting tickets about confusing elements.

Most companies still develop software backwards. Develop and then design.... It should be design and then develop..


YAY!!

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That's not a growth
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by That's not a growth » Sat Sep 15, 2018 8:47 am

That's not a growth wrote:Thanks. With the wage it's a difficult balance of it being a role created especially for me in a growing department, no direct comparison between roles in other departments, and the fact the company pays pretty appallingly overall in general. But it's a high margin department, and I know what a few managers are on, and I can compare to somewhat similar roles I've seen advertised online, and I've been at this for a while now.
I'm just trying to figure out how I would deal with it if they don't work on
a. Our systems
b. the staff levels
c. my wage
Because I just wouldn't want to work under those conditions.
Logically, none of these requests are unreasonable from what I can see, but I just get the feeling they'll make it as difficult as possible just because that's the way they do things, like they assume because you're asking for something then they can't give you everything out of principle. But I'm getting ahead of myself, I'm just nervous, it still needs to be discussed fully


This isn't going well, and I'm very, very stressed. And it's only about 'a' and 'b' now, I've not even got to 'c' with them yet because at the moment there's no point staying if those two aren't fixed, no matter how much they pay me.

The request for more staff was brought up during an exec meeting, and the MD thinks it's a load of gooseberry fool (to paraphrase), so was to send my manager's manager to join us for a few hours to see if my calculations on how long tasks take are fair or if we're really inefficient (note, I got these calculations by timing a member of staff over quite a few days and getting averages, which I've explained to them previously). He was meant to do this yesterday but didn't for reasons unknown. When my manager mentioned this a few days ago to me I pointed out that I agree; we are really inefficient, but because we need a new system (which is why I created a 7 page document pointing out where our systems are failing). Issue being the MD stopped our conversations with IT regarding that because... reasons. I'm not sure. He can be very impulsive and against anything that involves spending money. The company philosophy is basically get a problem, if you can't solve it with what you've got just do some over time until it's done. Issue being we've got a customer really wanting to give us a massive contract with a short turn around, and while there are questions about getting the proper paperwork and payment plans we still need to plan for this eventuality, and it's pretty much a done deal. My manager said I should look into new systems and tools myself, and that involving IT perhaps isn't the best use of their time. This is a contract potentially worth a few million to the company, and they're arguing against getting 3 people on around minimum wage to do admin work and getting some sort of database instead of Excel to do project and asset management.

I've been applying for jobs, but I'm concerned what to do if they try to put me in an impossible situation if I can't find something. It is absolutely impossible to complete the customers request using the current amount of people we have, and will be very, very difficult using the tools we have even if we do get more people.

They will tell me to just "give it a go and see what happens, and if you struggle we'll see about adding more people" but I KNOW from previous experience we will need more people, doing over time won't be enough (I don't even want to do over time, let alone 55+ hour weeks for 4+ months) and it takes time to train people and be prepared. And my day is already full, let alone trying to plan for a department expansion.

I'm considering I will have to walk and live off my savings for a while, and I'll get a load of gooseberry fool for leaving them at an important time. But it feels monumentally stupid agreeing to put myself in a situation that is impossible and they're not going to do anything to

Does a panic attract feel similar to a headache mixed with the feeling like you're going to faint and dizziness? I had that a lot yesterday. I strawberry floating hate this.

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Ecno
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Ecno » Fri Sep 21, 2018 3:16 am

Start a new job on Monday, however on Tuesday it was announced that the Company will be bought by an American firm (subject to shareholder and regulatory approval). Bit of a shame as this fundamentally changes potential progression, and could potentially lead to redundancy or a different job spec in about 12 months time.

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Christopher
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Christopher » Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:25 am

So I am a week into my notice period, I ended up getting three offers on the table from different companies, I went to my boss and said I have three offers and I am considering them all, but no attempt was made to try and retain me. I handed in my notice and again no attempt was made to retain and nothing was said beyond "Thanks for letting us know". After three years here and having implemented so many processes and ideas I'd have thought they might be a bit more concerned. Oh well, hopefully my new job will be a bit more successful, it's weird handing in my notice as I have been made redundant so many times over the years, I have only quit once before.

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Oblomov Boblomov
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Oblomov Boblomov » Tue Oct 02, 2018 9:54 pm

Work has been such a gooseberry fool lately. I head up a team that was made up of 22 people, the vast majority of whom are hardworking and very capable.

Four of those people have been forcibly moved to a different team. I've been told we have to absorb the workload. tl;dr this is causing horrendous problems and I've essentially been told to suck it up.

The stepping up opportunity never fully materialised because they've now decided instead of one of those roles, they need three of them. That's right, I've lost four worker bees and suddenly the wider department has gained two senior management positions.

This means of course they will be recruiting to those positions. I'll obviously go for one of them but it'll risk leaving the team I love being part of and being seen to abandon them when the going gets tough.

Really starting to get sick of feeling so exasperated all the time.

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<]:^D
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by <]:^D » Tue Oct 02, 2018 9:56 pm

didnt you try to kill your boss?
karma




;)

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Oblomov Boblomov
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Oblomov Boblomov » Tue Oct 02, 2018 9:58 pm

<]:^D wrote:didnt you try to kill your boss?
karma




;)

She's still off :lol: just keeps handing in another sick note every time it gets close to her return date. She claims she's so badly battered and bruised that she can't come into the office.

I've got her on WhatsApp and she regularly updates her status with videos of her playing with her kids in the park, going out with her husband etc. No shame whatsoever :lol:.

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<]:^D
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by <]:^D » Tue Oct 02, 2018 10:25 pm

what? :lol: joker!

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Green Gecko » Tue Oct 02, 2018 11:09 pm

Those sound like things a normal person would be trying to do even if they were unwell for some reason.

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Oblomov Boblomov
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Oblomov Boblomov » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:37 pm

I know, it's not exactly cartwheels and backflips, but when everyone already knows the absence is absolute bollocks already it just adds to the whole situation.

I don't even really blame her. The job is a strawberry floating hell hole and I can imagine a lot of people pulling the same stunt. I'm considering applying but only because there will be three of them in future instead of just her on her own.

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Errkal
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Errkal » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:42 pm

There was a guy where I used to work who was off sick for 2 years (NHS), someone looked into it all when it was reported he had been out and about and it turned out the disease he said he had that stopped him being mobile etc was something only chickens suffer from.

Still took another 6 months to fire the banana split.

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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Jenuall » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I know, it's not exactly cartwheels and backflips, but when everyone already knows the absence is absolute bollocks already it just adds to the whole situation.

I don't even really blame her. The job is a strawberry floating hell hole and I can imagine a lot of people pulling the same stunt. I'm considering applying but only because there will be three of them in future instead of just her on her own.


Just accidentally share her WhatsApp messages/updates with someone else, whoops!

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Victor Mildew » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:57 pm

Errkal wrote:There was a guy where I used to work who was off sick for 2 years (NHS), someone looked into it all when it was reported he had been out and about and it turned out the disease he said he had that stopped him being mobile etc was something only chickens suffer from.

Still took another 6 months to fire the banana split.


Did they give him a KFC45?

Hexx wrote:Ad7 is older and balder than I thought.
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by <]:^D » Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:30 pm

:fp: :lol:

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Errkal
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Errkal » Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:33 pm

Very exciting and gooseberry fool scary at work.

My latest creation is going to our security teams for approval and if approved will go into production for about 1000 colleagues in our claim department.

I built a system that will let colleagues upload cftv / dashcam footage from customers against an insurance claim number and it will then convert any video format to mp4 so it can be viewed in the built in html5 viewer for claims processing.

Right now the vids are manually converted and put on CD and kepr in a safe so only the local team can do the work, this will mean any claim team (we have 3 sites with claims) can work on a claim making it much much more efficient.

I case it isn't known I work for an insurance firm on the south.

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Death's Head
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PostRe: RE: Re: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Death's Head » Sat Oct 06, 2018 10:07 am

Errkal wrote:Very exciting and gooseberry fool scary at work.

My latest creation is going to our security teams for approval and if approved will go into production for about 1000 colleagues in our claim department.

I built a system that will let colleagues upload cftv / dashcam footage from customers against an insurance claim number and it will then convert any video format to mp4 so it can be viewed in the built in html5 viewer for claims processing.

Right now the vids are manually converted and put on CD and kepr in a safe so only the local team can do the work, this will mean any claim team (we have 3 sites with claims) can work on a claim making it much much more efficient.

I case it isn't known I work for an insurance firm on the south.
Did you come up with the idea or just develop it? If it was your idea you definitely need to bring it up at your next appraisal as justification for an increase.

Yes?
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Hexx
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Hexx » Sat Oct 06, 2018 10:16 am

Errkal wrote:Very exciting and gooseberry fool scary at work.

My latest creation is going to our security teams for approval and if approved will go into production for about 1000 colleagues in our claim department.

I built a system that will let colleagues upload cftv / dashcam footage from customers against an insurance claim number and it will then convert any video format to mp4 so it can be viewed in the built in html5 viewer for claims processing.

Right now the vids are manually converted and put on CD and kepr in a safe so only the local team can do the work, this will mean any claim team (we have 3 sites with claims) can work on a claim making it much much more efficient.

I case it isn't known I work for an insurance firm on the south.


Do you worry much that one single typo would compromise the whole thing and potentially bring down the company?

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Moggy
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PostRe: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Moggy » Sat Oct 06, 2018 10:21 am

Hexx wrote:
Errkal wrote:Very exciting and gooseberry fool scary at work.

My latest creation is going to our security teams for approval and if approved will go into production for about 1000 colleagues in our claim department.

I built a system that will let colleagues upload cftv / dashcam footage from customers against an insurance claim number and it will then convert any video format to mp4 so it can be viewed in the built in html5 viewer for claims processing.

Right now the vids are manually converted and put on CD and kepr in a safe so only the local team can do the work, this will mean any claim team (we have 3 sites with claims) can work on a claim making it much much more efficient.

I case it isn't known I work for an insurance firm on the south.


Do you worry much that one single typo would compromise the whole thing and potentially bring down the company?


He’s not worried, he’s counting on it. :nod:

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Errkal
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PostRe: RE: Re: The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!
by Errkal » Sat Oct 06, 2018 10:48 am

Death's Head wrote:
Errkal wrote:Very exciting and gooseberry fool scary at work.

My latest creation is going to our security teams for approval and if approved will go into production for about 1000 colleagues in our claim department.

I built a system that will let colleagues upload cftv / dashcam footage from customers against an insurance claim number and it will then convert any video format to mp4 so it can be viewed in the built in html5 viewer for claims processing.

Right now the vids are manually converted and put on CD and kepr in a safe so only the local team can do the work, this will mean any claim team (we have 3 sites with claims) can work on a claim making it much much more efficient.

I case it isn't known I work for an insurance firm on the south.
Did you come up with the idea or just develop it? If it was your idea you definitely need to bring it up at your next appraisal as justification for an increase.


I got asked come up with a better way of doing claims videos, so kind of both but it wasn't unprompted kind of thing.

It yeah I deffo getting used as justification along will the other stuff I've made, this is the first full "system" though.


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